CRANSTON – Rhode Island’s unemployment rate fell to 9.1 percent in March, the lowest unemployment rate for the Ocean State since November 2008, spurred by a large job gain in the professional and businesses services sector, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training announced Thursday.

March’s unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage points from February and represented a 1.5 percentage point decline from the 10.6 percent jobless rate in Rhode Island in March 2012.

However, the number of employed of employed residents fell by 500 from February, to 507,800 in March, though the over the year, the number of employed residents increased by 8,500.

The number of unemployed Rhode Island residents – those who are available for and actively seeking employment - fell 1,900 from February 2013and represented the ninth consecutive monthly decrease.

A 1,600 jobs gain in the professional and business services sector, from reported increased in employment services, landscaping services, and accounting services, puts the sector at its highest level in 23 years.

Job gains also were seen in construction and manufacturing [300], financial activities [200], arts, entertainment, and recreation [100], and mining and lodging [100].

Comments

We must stop fooling ourselves with percentages of employment based on fiction. Our population has dropped, many have left for better paying work, or work they could not get here, and/or a lower cost of living. Perhaps a better solution would be a count of tax returns at the DOR and divide that by the total population "of age" by census... or perhaps a combination of that and their current method. The formula current used has been known to be flawed for years yet we are forced to take this information which borders on propaganda and distribute it because it IS released by the government and therefore news. Maybe it's time for an indepth report on this illusion. Remember, it wasn't that long ago government was arguing that people were NOT leaving Rhode Island....

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